Hebrews 1:1
New International Version
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways,

New Living Translation
Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.

English Standard Version
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,

Berean Standard Bible
On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets.

Berean Literal Bible
God, having spoken long ago to our fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

King James Bible
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

New King James Version
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,

New American Standard Bible
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

NASB 1995
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

NASB 1977
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

Legacy Standard Bible
God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

Amplified Bible
God, having spoken to the fathers long ago in [the voices and writings of] the prophets in many separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the truth], and in many ways,

Christian Standard Bible
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways.

American Standard Version
God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners,

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
From the first, in all parts and in all forms, God spoke with our fathers by The Prophets,

Contemporary English Version
Long ago in many ways and at many times God's prophets spoke his message to our ancestors.

Douay-Rheims Bible
God, who, at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all,

English Revised Version
God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners,

GOD'S WORD® Translation
In the past God spoke to our ancestors at many different times and in many different ways through the prophets.

Good News Translation
In the past God spoke to our ancestors many times and in many ways through the prophets,

International Standard Version
God, having spoken in former times in fragmentary and varied fashion to our forefathers by the prophets,

Literal Standard Version
In many parts and many ways, God, having spoken long ago to the fathers by the prophets,

Majority Standard Bible
On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets.

New American Bible
In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets;

NET Bible
After God spoke long ago in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets,

New Revised Standard Version
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets,

New Heart English Bible
God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,

Webster's Bible Translation
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,

Weymouth New Testament
God, who in ancient days spoke to our forefathers in many distinct messages and by various methods through the Prophets,

World English Bible
God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,

Young's Literal Translation
In many parts, and many ways, God of old having spoken to the fathers in the prophets,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Supremacy of the Son
1On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. 2But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.…

Cross References
Numbers 12:6
He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will reveal Myself to him in a vision; I will speak to him in a dream.

Numbers 12:8
I speak with him face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you unafraid to speak against My servant Moses?"

Joel 2:28
And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

John 9:29
We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this man is from."

John 16:13
However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.

Acts 2:30
But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that He would place one of his descendants on his throne.

Acts 3:21
Heaven must take Him in until the time comes for the restoration of all things, which God announced long ago through His holy prophets.


Treasury of Scripture

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,

at.

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Genesis 6:3,13
And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years…

Genesis 8:15
And God spake unto Noah, saying,

in.

Numbers 12:6-8
And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream…

Joel 2:28
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

the fathers.

Luke 1:55,72
As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever…

John 7:22
Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man.

Acts 13:32
And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,

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Ancient Different Distinct Divers Fathers Forefathers Formerly Manners Messages Methods Parts Past Portions Prophets Time Times Various Ways Word
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Ancient Different Distinct Divers Fathers Forefathers Formerly Manners Messages Methods Parts Past Portions Prophets Time Times Various Ways Word
Hebrews 1
1. Christ in these last times coming to us from the Father,
4. is preferred above the angels, both in person and office.














(1) God, who at sundry times. . . .--The fine arrangement of the words in the Authorised version fails, it must be confessed, to convey the emphasis which is designed in the original. The writer's object is to place the former revelation over against that which has now been given; and the remarkable words with which the chapter opens (and which might not inaptly serve as the motto of the whole Epistle) strike the first note of contrast. If we may imitate the artistic arrangement of the Greek, the verse will run thus, "In many portions and in many ways God having of old spoken unto the fathers in the prophets." To the fathers of the Jewish people (comp. Romans 9:5) God's word was given part by part, and in divers manners. It came in the revelations of the patriarchal age, in the successive portions of Holy Writ: various truths were successively unveiled through the varying ministry of law, and of prophecy, and of promise ever growing clearer through the teaching of experience and history. At one time the word came in direct precept, at another in typical ordinance or act, at another in parable or psalm. The word thus dealt out in fragments and variously imparted was God's word, for the revealing Spirit of God was "in the prophets" (2Corinthians 13:3). We must not unduly limit the application of "prophet"; besides those to whom the name is directly given, there were many who were representatives of God to His people, and interpreters of His will. (Comp. Numbers 11:26; Numbers 11:29; Psalm 105:15.)

Verse 1. - Retaining the order of the words in the original, we may translate, In many portions, and in many modes of old God having spoken to the fathers in the prophets. Πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως ( νοτ a mere alliterative redundancy, denoting variously: - the writer's usual choice use of words forbids this supposition. Nor is the μερῶς of the first adverb to be taken (as in the A.V.) to denote portions of time: - this is not the proper meaning of the compound. Nor (for the same reason) does it denote various degrees of prophetic inspiration, but (on etymological as well as logical grounds) the various portions of the preparatory revelation to "the fathers." It was not one utterance, but many utterances; given, in fact, at divers times, though it is to the diversity of the utterances, and not of the times, that the expression points. Then the second adverb denotes the various modes of the several former revelations - not necessarily or exclusively the rabbinical distinction between dream, vision, inspiration, voices, angels; or that between the visions and dreams of prophets and the "mouth to mouth" revelation to Moses, referred to in Numbers 12:6-9; but rather the various characters or forms of the various utterances in themselves. Some were in the way of primeval promises; some of glimpses into the Divine righteousness, as in the Law given from Mount Sinai; some of significant ritual, as in the same Law; some of typical history and typical persons, spoken of under inspiration as representing an unfulfilled ideal; some of the yearnings and aspirations, or distinct predictions, of psalmists and of prophets. But all these were but partial, fragmentary, anticipatory utterances, leading up to and adumbrating the 'one complete, all-absorbing "speaking of God to us in the SON," which is placed in contrast with there all. If the subsequent treatment in this Epistle of the Old Testament utterances is to be taken as a key for unlocking the meaning of the exordium, such ideas were in the writer's mind when he thus wrote. "Πολυμερῶς pertinet ad materiam, πολυτρόπως ad formam" (Bengel). Of old; i.e. in the ages comprised in the Old Testament record. Though it is true that; God has revealed himself variously since the world was made to other than the saints of the Old Testament, and though he ceased not to speak in some way to his people between the times of Malachi and of Christ, yet both the expression, "to the fathers," and the instances of Divine utterances given subsequently in the Epistle, restrict us in our interpretation to the Old Testament canon. Addressing Hebrews, it is from this that the writer argues. Having spoken; a word used elsewhere to express all the ways in which God has made himself, his will, and his counsels, known (cf. Matthew 10:20; Luke 1:45, 70; John 9:29; Acts 3:21; Acts 7:6). To the fathers; the ancestors of the Jews in respect both of race and of faith; the saints of the Old Testament. The word had a well-understood meaning (cf. Matthew 23:30; Luke 1:55, 72; Luke 11:47; and especially Romans 9:5). For the double sense of the term "father," thus used, see John 8:56, "your father Abraham;" but again, John 8:39, "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham;" and also Romans 4. and Galatians 3:7. But this distinction between physical and spiritual ancestry does not come in here. In the prophets. The word "prophet" must be taken here in a general sense; not confined to the prophets distinctively so called, as in Luke 24:44, "Moses, the prophets, and the psalms." For both Moses and the psalms are quoted in the sequel, to illustrate the ancient utterances. Προφήτης means, both in classical and Hellenistic Greek (as does the Hebrew נָבִיא, of which προφήτης is the equivalent), not a foreteller, but a forth teller of the mind of God, an inspired expounder (cf. Διὸς προφήτης ἐστὶ Λοξίας πατρός, AEsch., 'Eum.,' 19; and Exodus 7:1, "See I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet"). Observe also the sense of προφητεία in St. Paul's Epistles (especially 1 Corinthians 14.). In this sense Moses, David, and all through whom God in any way spoke to man, were prophets. On the exact force of the preposition ἐν, many views have been entertained. It does not mean "in the books of the prophets," - the corresponding "in the SON" precludes this; nor that God by his Spirit spoke within the prophets, - this idea does not come in naturally here; nor is "the SON" presented afterwards as one in whom the Godhead dwelt, so much as being himself a manifestation of God; nor may we take ἐν, as simply a Hellenism for διὰ, - the writer does not use prepositions indiscriminately. Ἐν, (as Alford explains it) differs from διὰ as denoting the element in which this speaking takes place. This use of the preposition is found also in classical Greek; cf. σημαίνειν ἐν οἰωνοῖς, frequent in Xenophon; in the New Testament, cf. Ἐν τῷ ἄρχοντι τῶν δαιμονίωι ἐκβάλλει τὰ δαιμόνια (Matthew 9:34.).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
{On many} past
πάλαι (palai)
Adverb
Strong's 3819: Of old, long ago, in times past, former. Probably another form for palin; formerly, or sometime since; ancient.

occasions
Πολυμερῶς (Polymerōs)
Adverb
Strong's 4181: Adverb from a compound of polus and meros; in many portions, i.e. Variously as to time and agency.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

in many different ways,
πολυτρόπως (polytropōs)
Adverb
Strong's 4187: In many ways. Adverb from a compound of polus and tropos; in many ways, i.e. Variously as to method or form.

God
Θεὸς (Theos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

spoke
λαλήσας (lalēsas)
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2980: A prolonged form of an otherwise obsolete verb; to talk, i.e. Utter words.

to [our]
τοῖς (tois)
Article - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

fathers
πατράσιν (patrasin)
Noun - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3962: Father, (Heavenly) Father, ancestor, elder, senior. Apparently a primary word; a 'father'.

through
ἐν (en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722: In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

the
τοῖς (tois)
Article - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

prophets.
προφήταις (prophētais)
Noun - Dative Masculine Plural
Strong's 4396: From a compound of pro and phemi; a foreteller; by analogy, an inspired speaker; by extension, a poet.


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NT Letters: Hebrews 1:1 God having in the past spoken (Heb. He. Hb)
Philemon 1:25
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